CRUISING AROUND PITCAIRN ISLAND

CRUISING OFF PITCAIN ISLAND – Everyone has seen some version of the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty” or read the books. This island is where Fletcher Christian and the mutineers took the Bounty, beached it and burned it. They settled down here with some Tahitian women and their descendants live here to this day. The population is only 46 people and it is owned by Britain. They speak English and a patois of Tahitian and 18th century English. It is very remote. They get resupplied every 3 months by ship from New Zealand.

We stopped briefly to pick up some islanders who came aboard to offer some of their handicrafts for sale give us a bit or narration while we sailed around the island. It is a small mountainous island and very green. It is known as a particularly difficult island to land a ship on. We saw a few small beaches and some of the cliffs were pocked with large sea-level caves. They get cruise ships here with some regularity Dec thru March each year, but not much else throughout the year. There is no airstrip. They do have satellite communications with the rest of the world. The also have a pretty good website – check out the part of the website that has their stamps – unusually interesting in that they tell the history of the island – even some events that would not make the front page of a small town newspaper.

Clyde thought that while clearly a laid-back lifestyle, living on Pitcairn Island was not for him.